History / Poland's undying debt to Polonia [76]


You know, I would ignore this nonsense, but this really made me mad.
How dare you? Get into your thick head, that who we vote for in Poland is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! You don't have to live with your choices, so get the f*** out and leave us alone.

As an afterthought - did it ever occur to you that American Polonia just MIGHT be wrong? Or are you too stuck up, you self-rightous twat?


What cash? I never got a penny from any of you. Oh wait, that might be becuase my family doesn't come from a village?

Love / I'd like to get married with my girlfriend in Krakow. A simple ceremony place? [16]

You can "get married" in a humanist ceremony -


ceremoniehumanistyczne.pl/slub.html

Frankly speaking, it's complete nonsense - it has no legal value and is not registered anywhere. You could just as well hire and actor. You could just as well buy a ring and call each other husband and wife without bothering with any ceremony, to the same legal effect.

No official or priest is going to marry you without the paperwork.

News / More punch-UPS ON 11th NOV in Poland? [56]


I voted for Komorowski. The majority voted for him and he was fairly chosen in democratic election. Who are you to tell the people who voted for him that their voice was somehow less valuable then the P'iS supporters?

Komorowski replaced the previous president after his death. What were we supposed to be waiting for, 3 years of mourning without president maybe? That's what a psycho twin would probably have wanted!

Love / Any English guys give me advice please. Are Polish women very different to English women? [46]


Yeah, because English/American/French etc. girls NEVER cheat on their boyfriends, ever!
What is with those stereotypes??

UK, Ireland / English/British rudeness - what do Polish people think about it? [98]


And why would you say this? Normally, it's "czy mogę prosić o sól" or "poproszę o sól" - "please" is used in both sentences.

The whole thread is stupid. In both nations there are nice people and rude people. Some Brits tend to look down on other nationalities. Some Poles don't use words "thank you" and "please". Some cultural differences are rubbing people the wrong way (me - "British guys are rude, as they don't hold the door for me" my husband "I wouldn't risk offending a womkan by doing this").

Travel / Poland travel with baby (car seat?) [18]

Would you really let your baby travel in a car without a car seat??

Travel / Poland travel with baby (car seat?) [18]


Some busses will, trains won't. As far as I know, you can't strap a car seat to a train seat in the UK either?

Anyway, she said "is my baby allow to travel in car without carseat".

Love / Why a polish girl would prefer a relationship with a foreign man? [30]

Do you really think women are choosing their men according to their nationality? I met my now-husband, he was nice and funny, we had a great deal in common. I fell in love with him and he fell in love with me. He could just as well be Polish, it just happened thbhat he isn't.

Life / Showing respect and appreciation by Polish people, forms of greetings in Poland. [31]


I second that, I'd rather have mu hand chopped off then have Kaczyński kiss it!
Seriously though, it's usually parcticed by elderly, sleazy men and is, frankly speaking, disgusting. Yuck!

Language / About Mielimy? [6]

It's correct now: obcyjezykpolski.strefa.pl/?md=archive&id=67
Language is a living thing, you know...

Language / (The Polish voice sample below) Native Polish Speaker Opinion Needed [16]

It sounds very wooden and unnatural to me.
She might be Ukrainian, she speaks like a person from Kresy.

Love / Asking her family for permission to propose to my Polish girlfriend? [28]

Don't worry about it, some very traditional families might still do it (although noone I know, and I'm Polish), but this tradition is - to me - incredibly sexist. An adult woman can surely decide herself whether she wants to marry someone or not? Ask her, not her daddy.

Love / Asking her family for permission to propose to my Polish girlfriend? [28]


We don't have bridesmaids or bestmen in Poland, just witnesses - and we had two girls.
Also, don't you see a difference between having bridesmaids and having to ask woman's father for a permission to marry her? Come on, i was 28 when we got married, why would I need my daddy's permission??

Law / Getting married in Poland (documentation, church) [42]

We paid after the wedding, the priest didn't even ask.
The witnesses don't have to be Catholic!!! It's a common myth. If your priest says that, ask him where it is stated in the Canon Law.


We did not have to have any interviews with a bishop, and my husband is not Catholic (although Christian).
We were supposed to bring the witnesses that he's not married, but we got away with it and finally didn't have to.

The important part is to get the Certificate of No Impediment - my husband got it from the British Embassy, but you can probably obtain it in the UK.

Law / Getting married in Poland (documentation, church) [42]

We gave the Certificate to the registry office (USC), not to the priest.
You have to have the documents sorted in the registry office in order to allow the priest to marry you both legally and in the eyes of the Church. After the ceremony he sends the paperwork to the registry office and that's where you pick up your marriage certificate from.

Law / Getting married in Poland (documentation, church) [42]


It's a completly different story. The godparents have to be Catholic, because they swear during the ceremony that they will help to bring the child up in the Catholic faith. So they have to be Catholic, go to confession and be confirmed.

The wedding witnesses don't swear anything such, they just have to be 18 or over and sane. They don't have to provide any certificates of baptism or go to confession. I believe you that the preiest demended it, however, he was simply wrong.


Yes, in villages. Is your partner from a village?


You have to have the paperwork for the registry office if you get married in a church just as well - the office sorts out the "official" part, you take the paper from the office to the church, the priest fills the rest in, you and your witnesses sign it and it's sent back to the registry office. Then you can pick up your certificate from the office - not from the church! Without the paperwork from the office you'd only be married in the eyes of the Church, not legally - for example, you wouldn't be seen as a married couple for the tax purposes. It would have as much legal meaning as saying your vows in front of your friend in the forest. Anyway, the Church only agrees to do that in very rare cases - usually it has to have the legal meaning too.

Life / Wedding venues in Lodz or Zgierz?? [15]

How are you planning to sort all this out, if you don't speak Polish? Some places will speak English, of course, but not everyone, and certainly not in the offices (also, the priest is more likely to speak Latin than English, we had a massive problem in finding one in one of the biggest Polsih cities).

And the guys are right about the prices, they will give you a higher price just because they think you might pay more.
Plus, your fiance doesn't seem like a very nice guy, forgive me for saying this...

UK, Ireland / Advice on child support (Irish with my Polish husband) [106]


It doesn't work like that.
If they shared childcare 50-50, than yes, they should be spending an equal amount of money each. But here, because the ex wife is putting in hours actually spent on bringing up the child, he has to pay more money than her. I think anything less than 500zł a month is ridiculous.

Also, from what I can see, the ex wife was not "money crazy", as the OP put it, before they lowered the payment to 150zł per month, which is just insulting. Also, it's illegal, you can't just decide that from now on you're paying less without the court order.

The fact she lives with her parents is neither here nor there, none of the OP's business. Life in a village is not that much cheaper than in the city - you don't have Tesco there with own brands, village shops may be quite expensive. And the fact that the OP doesn't take her kids to the zoo, cinema or swiming pool is her own problem. As far as I'm concerned, if you can't afford children, you shouldn't have them.

UK, Ireland / Advice on child support (Irish with my Polish husband) [106]


You don't know if it's true, that's merely what the OP is claiming. I would be upset if my father left us and started a new family - and I probably would not want to stay in touch much. And I'm 31, not 8. My cousin calls her mother "pani", she's so upset about her leaving. My cousin was 7 when her mother left, now she's 20 - she still hasn't forgiven her.

If father wanted the contact so much, he would have fought for it, instead he just cut the payment. If you really want to see your child, you don't move to another country, you stay close so that you can see your kid - if it's more important to you than a new relationship. You go to the court and fight, if the mother is denying access. Cutting the money doesn't achieve anything and is completely illogical.


Very much depends on a village. Some villages are really poor. Others are only villages by name, in reality most of the people there work in the cities. It depends in which part of Poland it is.

I doubt if she had to make the child hate him, he left the mother and the kid and started a new family, of course the child is upset, who wouldn't be?? The OP said they cut the money because this abandoned 8 year old was cold towards his father. My God...

UK, Ireland / Advice on child support (Irish with my Polish husband) [106]

I have, but thank you so much for your concern.

Study / MBA in Poland for 40+ and older? [62]


Everyone knows that you can study different courses in one faculty - Law, Administration, European Studies and whatever else... It was like this for years, when did you study that you don't know this??

In your first post you claimed that it's difficult to get into tuition free courses in Poland. He proved you wrong, that's why you're so angry? I know people from my primary who were barely getting a pass, who went to the worst high school in the city - and who graduated from the university with MA degree. Of course, it wasn't law or medicine that they studied, but nevertheless, they wouldn't have gotten into any uni in the UK. That's just ridiculous.

I studied in Poland (on two different universities) and in the UK. I'm sorry, but there's just no comparison - the course in Poland was old-fashioned, many subjects were completely irrelevant to the chosen degree, the course was utter ********. The British uni was really teaching what it should be teaching. There was no cheating, the teachers were interested in their students and the exams were fair and relevant to the subject. Polish course was heavy on theory, that's true - but I learnt within 1 year in the UK more than in 3 years in Poland. Sorry to burst your bubble...

If I could choose again I would never, ever choose a Polish university.

Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]

Oh Monia, how you made me laugh! I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I know exactly what I'm talking about.
I'm Polish, I studied at two different Polish universities, both public, both full time, including UAM, which is much much better than your UMCS (UMCS came 31st according to Rzeczpospolita ranking).

You had only oral exams? You must be really old, when I studied ( I started in 2001), most exams were already written. Even when my parents studied many exams were written! And yes, people were cheating; it's not seen as something wrong by most people in Poland.

No one would cheat where I studied in the UK... But in Poland I'm not surprised, as half of the subjects were not connected to the course, taught by people whose knowledge and mentality was stuck somewhere in the 70s.

So, dear Monia, I'm an educated woman too. But, unlike you, I have experienced both education systems and I can compare them.

Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]

Where did I say I or my parents studied law?
Nowhere, because we didn't - we all studied a branch of science at UAM. Majority of exams were written.
No, my parents were not teenagers when they had me, but what does it matter anyway?

You know exactly that it's true, cheating is ingrained in our culture. I know that because I'm Polish, I went to school here m I studied here. Why are you pretending otherwise?

Have a look at the posts from WPiA UAM forum:

forum-prawo.pl/viewtopic.php?t=4553&start=45
forum-prawo.pl/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=4396&start=40
forum-prawo.pl/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1147

I wonder why those students are discussing cheating if NO ONE cheats in Poland. :D And if these are the students from one of the best unis in the country, then I don't want to know how the ones from worse schools behave...

Travel / Poles the worst-dressed tourists in the world? [25]

Exactly, I was showing a group of elderly Swedish people round Poznań and all the men were wearing socks and sandals. It's not just a Polish thing.

Study / Looking for 'reviews' of schools for expat kids in Poland [28]


The kids are 5 and 8, they are hardly going to go to gimnazjum, let alone to liceum.
She needs a primary school.

Really, 5 and 8 year old will pick up the language quickly, a good Polish school should be fine.

News / Poles v Tusk's school 'reform' [58]

Traditional school system in Poland is not 8+4. The primary school lasting for 8 years it was introduced in 1961 by the Communist Party. So basically PiS is supporting communist solutions :D

Between the wars we had system consisting of primary school, gimnasium and high school, similar to the current system.

Many people failed their "matura" because of the fact that everyone now goes to high school. It's very good they failed - not everyone should have matura, not everyone should study.

News / Poles v Tusk's school 'reform' [58]

We are talking about Poland, not about US. In Poland, the system without gimnasiums was slowly introduced AFTER 1945, by communists. Yes, at the beginning there were 7 classes of primary school, finally, in 1961, whole Poland was switched to 8 + 4 system. Before the II WW there were gymnasiums with so called "small matura", than high school and normal matura. It's not propaganda, it's facts. My grandparents went to school in this system.

So, right now people are terrified of having their "tiny" first graders together with the kids from 6th grade, and PiS wants to put much older teenagers back into primary schools? I must congratulate them on their logical thinking...

News / Poles v Tusk's school 'reform' [58]

G, have you ever studied at the Polish university? I have, at two of them, and than I went to study in the UK. The Polish university, unfortunately, can't even start to compete with the British one. And I studied at one of the best unis in Poland, and the uni in the UK was no Oxford. I'm sorry to say this, but our unis suck.

News / Should Poland exit the EU immediately? [375]

No, Ironside, the fact that someone votes for PO doesn't mean they are "post-commies" or "post-Poles" (what does it even mean??).

You might not have noticed, but PiS has much more socialist economic views than PO. PiS is a right wing party only by name, and maybe by their social views (abortion etc.). In any other countries parties that want to give people handouts are left parties!

So anyway, no, we wouldn't be better off outside of EU. We'd be outcasts. And yes, we do need EU money. And I don't know how about you, but I enjoy being able to travel and work wherever I want within EU. As do many other Poles. Leaving EU would be the most idiotic move ever.

Life / Surgery for a cat in hospital in Poland? [12]

I hope no vet agrees to such an "operation". Cats scratch, that's normal - either learn t olive with this, or give your cat to someone who actually likes animals. As far as I can see, it's illegal in Poland.